Between Principle and Pragmatism: Reflections on Prototyping Computational Media with Webstrates

Abstract

Computational media describes a vision of software, which, in contrast to application-centric software, is (1) malleable, so users can modify existing functionality, (2) computable, so users can run custom code, (3) distributable, so users can open documents across different devices, and (4) shareable, so users can easily share and collaborate on documents. Over the last ten years, the Webstrates and Codestrates projects aimed to realize this vision of computational media. Webstrates is a server application that synchronizes the DOM of websites. Codestrates builds on top of Webstrates and adds an authoring environment, which blurs the use and development of applications. Grounded in a chronology of the development of Webstrates and Codestrates, we present eight tensions that we needed to balance during their development. We use these tensions as an analytical lens in three case studies and a game challenge in which participants created games using Codestrates. We discuss the results of the game challenge based on these tensions and present key takeaways for six of them. Finally, we present six lessons learned from our endeavor to realize the vision of computational media, demonstrating the balancing act of weighing the vision against the pragmatics of implementing a working system.

Casting the runes and parsing them: Unpacking software mediation, interactions, and computational literacy in non-conventional programming configurations

“…"Between Principle and Pragmatism: Reflections on Prototyping Computational Media with Webstrates" (Borowski, Fog, et al 2022) encompasses multiple studies. The first half is a retrospective inquiry into a family of computational media developed and used by the research group that I have been part of.…”

“…An overview of their previous experience and skills can be found in table 2.2. For more information about participants, see Borowski, Fog, et al (2022). Participants' ages ranged from 24 to 37.…”

“…In Borowski, Fog, et al (2022), we framed this lack of success as a question of the medium itself and its characteristics. It is, however, likely that P2's self-description also hinders any substantial development of computational literacy, i.e., the cognitive pillar.…”

“…The following conceptualization of computational media draws on previously published work, primarily Nouwens, Borowski, et al (2020) and Borowski, Fog, et al (2022). This is supplemented by new work in which I revisited the empirical data from these previous studies.…”

“…Part of this introduction is an overview of the four guiding principles that have influenced the subsequent computational media prototypes used in my studies, e.g., CodestRates. Similarly, while I was not part of the technical and conceptual development of CodestRates, I have nonetheless been intimately involved in subsequent use and reflections, particularly in Borowski, Fog, et al (2022), where my peers and I have looked back on the history of the software. Therefore, even though I have not developed WebstRates nor CodestRates, I have still conducted research based on these two systems.…”